Publication: Proper hand washing practices among elementary school students in Selat sub-district, Indonesia
Issued Date
2012
Resource Type
Language
eng
ISSN
1905-1387
Rights
Mahidol University
Rights Holder(s)
ASEAN Institute for Health Development. Mahidol University
Bibliographic Citation
Journal of Public Health and Development. Vol.10, No.2 (2012), 3-20
Suggested Citation
Tri Setyautami, Santhat Sermsri, Jiraporn Chompikul Proper hand washing practices among elementary school students in Selat sub-district, Indonesia. Journal of Public Health and Development. Vol.10, No.2 (2012), 3-20. Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/1575
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Title
Proper hand washing practices among elementary school students in Selat sub-district, Indonesia
Alternative Title(s)
การปฎิบัติด้านการล้างมือที่เหมาะสมของนักเรียนชั้นประถมศึกษา ในตำบลเซรัท ประเทศอินโดนีเซีย
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Abstract
Even though proper hand washing is the most effective and easiest way to prevent many diseases, unfortunately
many people do not practice hand washing correctly. The worldwide Global Hand Washing Day campaign which
targets school children as the most effective agents for behavior change is both evidence of this problem and an
attempt to address it. This study considers the implications of this practical policy for local government, health
professionals and other stakeholders concerned with improving school-based hygiene intervention programs.
This paper describes a cross-sectional descriptive study about hand washing practice, the prevalence of proper
hand washing, and related factors among sixth grade of elementary students in Selat sub-district, Indonesia. A
self administered questionnaire was administered to 274 students at seven schools randomly selected by proportion
to size from five villages. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi square tests, and multiple logistic
regression to explore associations between the various study factors (i.e. socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes,
subjective norms, perceived control, and availability of facilities).
Nine combinations of hand washing emerged from this study which combined washing hands by using water
and soap with two critical events: before eating and after visiting the toilet. Only 40.5% of the respondents
washed their hands properly. Availability of clean water (Adj OR = 4.24, 95% CI = 1.92-9.35) and soap (Adj
OR = 5.55, 95% CI = 2.36-13.08) at hand washing stands were found to be significant predictors of proper hand
washing, when adjusted with other factors.
This study demonstrates that the prevalence of proper hand washing was very low among the school students.
Hand washing promotion should be more effective in schools and better facilities need to be more widely available
to improve the prevalence of proper hand washing by students.